


Ends of the Earth

by blearghthespiders



Series: Sophie Milkovich [1]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Daddy Mickey, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blearghthespiders/pseuds/blearghthespiders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian comes back after 3 and a half years. He hadn't been planning to get back with Mickey, but despite how everything is different now, that's the one thing that is still the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

Ian sat on the edge of the bed, wearing only his boxers, his expression blank, almost bored.

Mickey lied on the bed behind him, still breathing heavily, with a lazy grin on his face.

It had been three and a half years since Ian had left to go off into the army. He had actually been caught and kicked out within the first few weeks, but, still being pissed, he had decided not to return to Chicago right away.

He spent the years travelling across America by hitch hiking. He was able to find some odd jobs, and save a bunch of money.

He eventually did return to Chicago, though. Not only did he miss his family, but he knew they missed him too. He felt like he owed them the opportunity to yell at him in person.

Ian hadn't  _meant_  to start up again with Mickey. He had actually wanted to get back in touch with Mandy. It was hard because every time he tried calling, Terry would pick up. So he ended up just waiting across the street for Mandy to come out of her house.

When she did come out, Ian waited until she had walked down the street a bit. He ran up behind her and covered her eyes. "Guess who!"

"Get the fuck off me, perv!" She had yelled, whipping around and pushing Ian hard enough to make him stumble backward a few steps.

Ian only laughed. He knew that would be her exact reaction.

When Mandy saw that it was Ian, her face had lit up. "Ian!" She tackled him with a hug so forceful, she almost knocked him off his feet.

She then invited him inside, telling him no one was home.

They had been sitting on the couch, catching up-Ian was telling her all the crazy stories from his travels, and Mandy had told him that he was lucky he ran into her, since she was actually living somewhere else, with her boyfriend, and had only been there to drop off some stuff- when the front door burst open. Mickey walked in with a grocery bag in one hand and a small child clinging to the other.

Mickey stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Ian.

The little girls face lit up. "Aunt Mandy!" She squealed.

Mickey looked down at her. "Go to your room, Sophie."

"Daddy-" The girl started to whine.

"Go to your room!" Mickey said a little more harshly.

The girl pouted and stomped off to Mandy's old room.

"That was a little harsh, don't you think?" Mandy said, scowling at him.

Mickey ignored the question. "The fuck is  _he_  doing here?"

"I invited him in," Mandy answered calmly.

Mickey let out a heavy breath and stalked off to the kitchen.

Ian hadn't looked up from the floor once, since Mickey had walked in.

As soon as Mickey was out of the room, Mandy turned to Ian and said in a low voice, "So … have you been seeing anyone?"

He smirked and rolled his eyes. "Not really," he answered.

She leaned in closer and whispered, "Well neither has Mickey …"

"Mandy-"

"I have to use the bathroom," she interrupted, giving him a not-so-subtle look, nodding toward the kitchen. She got up and left him alone on the couch.

Ian sat there for a moment, just listening to Mickey bang around in the other room. He felt extremely uncomfortable.

Finally, he sighed, thought  _fuck it_ , and slowly made his way to the kitchen.

He was standing in the doorway for a moment before Mickey noticed him.

"What?" He practically spat. He didn't turn around from whatever he was doing at the counter.

"How've you been, Mickey?" Ian asked slowly.

"Great," he grunted.

"So … I guess Svetlana was really pregnant?"

"Yep."

"And the girl … she really yours?"

"Yep."

Ian was glad Mickey's back was turned because he could barely hide the shock on his face.

He composed himself and then asked, "You happy?"

Mickey slammed down the cup he had just grabbed out of the cupboard and spun around. "Why are you here?"

"Came by to see Mandy," Ian answered simply.

"No why are you in  _here_? Fucking bugging me …" Mickey rolled his eyes and walked by Ian, knocking into his shoulder, before he could answer.

"Mickey-" Ian grabbed Mickey's shoulder and turned him around "-look, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I left."

Mickey didn't push off Ian's hand, but shrugged. "What are you expecting?"

"Nothing," Ian said quietly, removing his hand, "Just thought you should know that I know that I'm an asshole."

Mickey raised his eyebrows. "Fucking good that you know that." Then he turned back around, heading toward the living room.

Ian sighed and turned away. He didn't really realize how much he missed Mickey until he saw him. He wasn't expecting anything to happen, but he couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut.

That was until the next second when Mickey turned him back around and pressed his lips to Ian's.

Old habits die hard.

Mickey had told Ian to come back that night. Terry and Iggy were out of town, Joey was at his girlfriend's, and Svetlana would be working.

Ian agreed.

It was then that he realized that even after everything they went through, and all the time apart, neither of them had stopped loving the other.

That night, it was just like old times. They fucked and  _then_  they talked.

Ian apologized again for leaving. Of course, Mickey's reaction had just been to smirk and say "then you should make it up to me."

Ian swallowed. "I missed you."

Mickey looked over at him. "Yeah me too … haven't been fucked like that in forever."

Ian raised his eyebrows. "Just the fucking?"

Mickey rolled his eyes. "Nah man, you know what I mean."

They just talked for the rest of the night.

Mickey told Ian all about Sophie. He went on about how smart he thought she was, how she was going to be beautiful when she grew up, all the silly little things she did or said. Like how she called tomatoes "tommys" and she said "fallded" instead of "fell."

"Svetlana hates her," he admitted quietly after a moment. "Doesn't even want her to call her 'mom,' just 'Svetlana.'" He suddenly laughed to himself. "Nobody realizes it because she's still three, you know, and they don't really understand her when she talks, but I taught her to say ' _Slut_ lana' instead." He laughed some more.

Ian noticed something in Mickey's eyes that he had never seen before. Mickey really loved Sophie. And he was able to love her without that nagging feeling of shame and guilt that had come with loving Ian.

Already Ian loved Sophie too, purely because of how happy she made Mickey.

Ian hadn't officially met Sophie until the next morning.

He woke up on Mickey's bed, to the sound of movement in the kitchen. He was lying on his side, facing the door. When he opened his eyes, there were two tiny blue ones staring back at him.

The girl was standing about two feet away from the bed. She had long, dark hair and pale skin. She was definitely Mickey's daughter.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Uh … I'm Ian." He answered. He looked at the clock. It was only 8 am. He wondered where Mickey was.

"My name is Sophie," the girl said, "I'm looking for my daddy."

Ian stood up, thankful that he had put on a pair of Mickey's sweatpants before he fell asleep. He had been a little paranoid about sleeping there, and wanted to be wearing pants in case he needed to make a quick getaway. The last time he slept over in this house, things had not ended well. "Do you want me to help you find him?"

"Yeah …" she said slowly. she reached out her hand toward Ian when he stood up.

Ian took her hand and laughed when she lead him out the door.

Sophie looked down at Ian's hand. "You have a lot of spots!"

He laughed again. "Yeah, they're called freckles."

When they reached the kitchen, they saw that Mickey was there, stirring a tiny bowl of oatmeal.

"Daddy!" Sophie called, letting go of Ian's hand and running up to Mickey, "Daddy! There was a man in your bed!"

Mickey turned around placed the tiny bowl on the table. "Mmm," he said quietly, giving Ian a tantalizing grin, "Just what I wanted for my birthday."

Ian rolled his eyes.  _Same old Mickey._

"Is that the dinosaur kind, Daddy?" Sophie grabbed onto Mickey's pant leg, trying to look over the table. "I only eat the dinosaur kind."

"I know you only eat the dinosaur kind," Mickey said, picking her up, and putting her in one of the chairs.

Sophie giggled, " _You're_  a dinosaur, Daddy!"

" _I"m_  a dinosaur?" Mickey pulled a shocked face, as if he were actually offended.

Ian watched Mickey and Sophie. As strange as it was to see him interacting with a child, the whole thing seemed very normal, and natural.

He then looked curiously at the chair Sophie was sitting in. "Uh … is that a booster seat from McDonald's duct taped to a chair?"

Mickey glanced down at Sophie's chair and shrugged, "Cheaper than a high chair."

"High chairs are for babies!" Sophie said.

Mickey looked back at her, "Yeah, and you're a big girl, right?"

"Yeah!" Sophie nodded excitedly.

"Can you show Daddy that you're a big girl and finish all your oatmeal?"

She gave a very exaggerated sigh and dug into her oatmeal.

Ian watched from the doorway. The adorableness of the scene was almost painful.

Mickey glanced up at him, "The fuck are you grinning at?"

Ian shrugged, but kept smiling.

"There's some cereal in the pantry," he smirked, "sorry there's not enough dinosaur oatmeal."

"Damn," Ian said, "that's the only kind I eat too." He walked over, poured himself a bowl of cereal, and sat down with Mickey Sophie.

The whole thing felt surreal.

"What are we doing today?" Sophie asked after a bit.

"Well, you're going to Aunt Mandy's and I'm going to work." Mickey answered, not looking up from his own cereal.

"Will Aunt Mandy let me play make up for pretend again?"

"I'm sure if you ask her nicely she will," he said.

Sophie started laughing suddenly. "I wanna put lip stick on you again Daddy!"

Mickey slowly looked up from his cereal at Sophie. She was squealing with laughter. He then turned to Ian, glaring at him, as if to say, N _ot a fucking word._

Ian's head was cocked to one side, and he had the biggest grin on his face. " _Again?_ "

Mickey tried raising his eye brows threateningly, but that only seemed to egg Ian on.

"Hey Sophie," Ian asked, "did your daddy look pretty with lip stick?"

Sophie was laughing so hard, she was squirming around in her chair. She shook her head. "No! He looked like an ugly girl!"

Ian threw his head back and laughed so hard he barely felt the kick in his shin. When he looked back, Mickey's face was red.

"Hey Sophie," he said calmly to his daughter, "I thought we decided we wouldn't tell anyone about that?"

Sophie's laughter died down a bit, and she leaned in real close to her daddy. "I lied," she whispered, still giggling.

"I can see that you lied, you little shit!"

Sophie just giggled harder at Mickey's mock-anger. " _You're_ a shit!"

Ian laughed. "She sounds like you."

Before he left, Ian and Mickey decided that from then on, they would just meet up in motel rooms-safer than the Milkovich house, and a lot nicer than random alley ways.

This was where they were now. It had been several weeks since their reunion and probably around their tenth time meeting up.

Mickey couldn't help but notice that the past few times, Ian didn't have that shit-eating grin on his face when they were done, like he usually did. In fact, Ian was starting to fuck Mickey like it was chore.

Ian stood up and walked toward where his pants were on the floor.

"Where you going?" Mickey was just barely able to hide the slight panic in his voice.

"We're done, right?" Ian answered passive-aggressively.

"C'mon, we have the whole night," he whined.

Ian sighed and turned to look at Mickey. "How longs it gonna be like this?"

"Like what?" he snapped.

"I'm getting a little tired of motel rooms and, you know, secrecy! I wish we could, for once, fucking do something!"

Mickey scoffed, "Like what-announce our fucking wedding or something!?"

" _You're_  the one who keeps bringing up marriage, Mickey! I get it, okay? You don't wanna fucking get married! All  _I_  want is to be able to go out somewhere-to the movies or something-with someone who I can call my boyfriend!"

Mickey winced when Ian said "boyfriend."

"See!?" Ian nearly shouted, "You can't even stand the word! And it sucks because I can't even just end it with you and go and find someone else because you make feel fucking guilty-"

"Guilty!?" Mickey yelled, sitting up, poorly hiding the hurt on his face with anger, "What-you fucking saying you're only here because you feel guilty? If that's the case then you can just fucking leave! I don't need  _you_  to get laid!"

Ian sighed, "That came out wrong, okay? I just mean you make me feel guilty for wanting people to know about us! That's not why I'm here …"

"So then why  _are_  you here?" He demanded.

Ian looked down at the pants in his hands, and picked at a piece of lint for a long moment before finally looking back up at Mickey.

"Because I love you."

It was the first time Ian ever said it out loud to Mickey. He knew Mickey knew how he felt.

He knew Mickey wouldn't say it back, but he did seem to calm down a bit.

"So … what do you want me to do?" Mickey asked genuinely this time.

Ian sighed and sat back down on the bed. "I don't know," he said quietly.

"I can't-I mean-this is the most I can do right now."

"Yeah, I know, Mickey." Ian sounded defeated.

"I mean if my dad finds out again, it'll be a lot worse than last time."

Ian shrugged. "At least one good thing came from last time," he said, thinking of Sophie. He hadn't seen her since the first time they met, but Mickey would still keep him updated, possibly show him a picture or two.

"Yeah but I'm not talking about something like that," Mickey said seriously, "This time would result in a fucking funeral instead of a kid. And I don't think it would be mine."

Ian glanced at him.

Mickey was getting frustrated by how unaffected he was by his words. "He will  _kill_  you, Ian. I'm not kidding."

"Why do you even still live there?" Ian snapped.

"I have nowhere else to go!" Mickey let out a heavy breath, "I mean, do you really think I  _like_  living there? Do you think I _like_  telling Sophie constantly that she's not allowed to keep secrets with Grandpa-or that she can't be alone with him-'cause I'm afraid he might hurt her? Don't you think I'd go somewhere else if I could!?"

Ian looked at him for a long moment, before saying slowly, "You know what he did to Mandy, right?"

"Yes, I fucking know what he did to Mandy, alright?" Mickey snapped, raising his voice. "There's nothing I can do about that now, okay? Mandy moved out, so she's safe now."

Mickey had found out about what happened when he had brought Sophie over to Mandy's, one day, and had decided to stay and hang out. He liked to go over to Mandy's, it was basically a safe haven from his own home. Plus her boyfriend, Dan, wasn't too bad either.

Mandy had been prying a bit about Ian, Svetlana, and why exactly Mickey had gotten married, while Dan and Sophie had been in the other room, watching cartoons.

After three years, Mickey finally gave in and told Mandy the whole story of their dad walking in on him and Ian, making him fuck Svetlana, and then making him marry her.

Mandy had then broke down and told Mickey what their father did to  _her._

Not that he would ever call it that, but they had a real "heart to heart" moment that night.

Mickey had been fuming about what Mandy told him. It was probably more amplified now that he had a daughter of his own.

When they got home that night, and Mickey had tucked Sophie in, he just sat on the couch and waited.

Terry had finally gotten home around 1 am.

Mickey hadn't really been thinking as he stormed up to him, and just punched him in the face. "Mandy told me what you did, you fucking bastard!" He yelled as Terry stumbled back a bit.

Of course, Terry had only been taken off guard, and he was already much larger than Mickey.

He slammed Mickey on to the floor and elbowed him in the face. "You piece of shit! Gonna treat me this way in  _my_  fucking house?"

He punched Mickey in the face. Then in the Gut. "I don't fucking think so!"

Terry kept beating him. Mickey had tried to get away, but he just grabbed him by the throat and slammed him on to the floor again.

He knew it was useless to try to fight back at this point. He was going to have to just take it until Terry got bored.

That was when Mickey heard the scream.

"Grandpa! Stop!"

He opened his eyes and was just barely able to make out Sophie running toward the two of them. She grabbed onto the arm that Terry was holding in the air, fist ready, about to strike again.

Terry grunted, "Fuck off, kid!" and back-handed Sophie in the face. It was hard enough to knock her down and make her skid across the floor a few feet.

She screamed again, followed by a loud whimper.

"Sophie, go to your room!" Mickey yelled, as Terry hit him in the gut again.

She was sobbing now. "Daddy!"

"Go to your room!"

Sophie was still crying, but he heard her run to her room and slam the door.

Terry hit Mickey a few more times before standing up.

"Don't fucking tell me how to treat my kids!" He gave Mickey a hard kick in the stomach. "You hear me?"

He gave a weak nod, and Terry stalked off to his room.

Mickey wanted nothing more than to just pass out on the floor right there. His head was spinning and he could feel blood dripping from his nose and the side of his mouth.

He slowly got up, ambled his way to the bathroom, and cleaned himself up. He made sure there wasn't a single drop of blood visible before grabbing the little first aid kit from the cabinet, and heading to Sophie's room.

When he opened the door, he saw that Sophie had hidden herself under her covers and he could hear her sobbing.

"Sophie?" he said softly as he pulled the covers off her face.

Her cheeks were red and wet with tears.

He sat down next to her on the bed. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"Why was Grandpa hurting you?"

"Grandpa just gets like that sometimes." Mickey said calmly, as he brushed back her hair, inspecting her face. "Does your face still hurt?"

Sophie shook her head, but showed Mickey her hand facing upward, "I got a scratch." There was a small cut on the heal of her hand.

"C'mere," Mickey muttered, grabbing her hand. He pulled the antibiotic ointment out of the first aid kit, spread it on her hand, and covered it with a band aid. "All better?" he asked.

Sophie pouted and shook her head. She lifted her hand up closer to Mickey's face with a small whimper.

He chuckled a little. "Okay, okay," he said before bending down and kissing the palm of her hand. "How about now?"

She smiled, "Yeah."

"Hey, Sophie, do you remember how I told you not to play with the lock on your door?" He asked gesturing to her bedroom door. Mandy had put a lock on the door back when she first started bringing boys over. When Sophie started sleeping in the room, Mickey was afraid she'd play with it and get stuck in her room.

Sophie shook her head. "I didn't play with the lock." She thought she was in trouble.

"I know you didn't," Mickey assured her, "but if you ever see Grandpa like that again, I want you to use the lock, okay?"

"Okay," she said quietly, playing with the hem of her blanket.

"Hey-look at me-" Mickey gently turned her chin to face him, "if you ever see Grandpa angry, I want you to go in your room, lock the door, and hide under your bed, okay?"

Sophie nodded.

"Can you tell me what I just said?"

She looked down and started playing with her blanket again. "Go in my room, lock the door, and hide under the bed."

"And when are you gonna do this?"

She looked up at him, "When Grandpa's angry?"

"Right." Mickey said.

Sophie suddenly looked panicked. "Is Grandpa gonna hurt me too?"

"No, Grandpa's not gonna hurt you when I'm around, okay? I'm not gonna let him."

Sophie nodded and suddenly buried her head into Mickey's stomach, wrapping her arms around him.

He rubbed her back a bit. It hurt him, more than every punch Terry threw at him, to know that he had to worry about his daughter being safe in his own home. Also knowing that Sophie would probably worry about still having a daddy the next morning.

Sophie peeked up at him. "Can you stay in here? I'm scared."

"Of course I'll stay in here." He moved so he was laying down on the bed-Mandy had left her own bed when she moved out, so it was pretty big-and grabbed Sophie's cheap throw blanket, that was used instead of a comforter, and wrapped it around her tiny body. He pulled her close to him.

She then buried her face in Mickey's shoulder, using his arm as a pillow. "Is Grandpa gonna come in here?" She whispered.

"No, Grandpa's not gonna come in here tonight."

"Okay." Sophie whimpered.

Mickey's stomach clenched. "Hey, how about we get some ice cream tomorrow? After I pick you up from Mandy's?"

She looked up at Mickey with the biggest grin on her face. "Yeah!"

Mickey laughed, "Okay."

After a moment, he spoke again. "Everything's gonna be fine, Sophie," he lied, "I promise."

"Mickey," Ian said, pulling him out of the memory, "Mandy said he did it because she looked like your mom-what do you think  _Sophie's_  gonna look like, huh?"

"Shut up," Mickey said weakly. The idea of what Ian was implying made him sick.

"What's going to stop him, huh?" Ian asked more fiercely, "What's gonna keep Terry from doing what he did to Mandy, to Sophie?"

"Shut up!" Mickey yelled so loud, all the occupants of the rooms around theirs had to have heard. "That's not gonna happen, alright?" He said, just a little quieter, "I'm not gonna fucking let that happen! If he does, I'm gonna fucking kill him!"

"Yeah-killing him after the fact isn't gonna stop him," Ian pointed out.

"I'll kill him if he tries to be alone with her, then!" He yelled.

"How do you know he hasn't already-?"

"FUCK OFF!" Mickey was shaking, "She tells me everything! I know what goes on in my own house-

"You live with a pedophile, Mickey! In the same house as your three year old daughter!"

"What am I supposed to do! ? I have nowhere else to go-it's bad enough that I have Mandy taking care of her during the day, and letting her sleep over most weekends! The only thing more I can do is ask Mandy to take her in, and that's crossing a line!"

"Mickey," Ian asked calmly, "What happens when one of your neighbors calls DCFS, huh? They'll walk in, take one look at the house you live in, your tattooed knuckles, and the fact that Sophie's mother dresses like-oh! And also happens to be-a prostitute, and they'll send her away to some sterile north side family, who will think you're too much of a bad influence to let her keep in touch with you."

Mickey rolled his eyes, "No one in  _our_  neighborhood is gonna call fucking DCFS, okay?"

"Well maybe they should!" Ian yelled.

"What the fuck do you want me to do? I don't know what will happen if I try to move out, okay? My dad said if I ever try to ditch Svetlana he'd have her fight for custody or some shit."

"You could fight back," Ian said quietly.

"Yeah? You said it yourself-they'll take one look at my tattooed knuckles, Plus Svetlana's the mother, you know? They always take that bitch's side." He sighed. "Look, it's just easier to stay there. Makes it so my dad has no reason to have a problem with me."

"So him beating you up, and scaring your daughter isn't him having a problem with you?"

"Would you fucking tell me what you want me to do already?"

Ian sighed and looked down.

"If you've got something to say, say it! Don't be a little bitch about it!" Mickey demanded.

He shrugged and looked everywhere but Mickey. "We should … go somewhere."

Mickey scoffed. " _Go somewhere?_ "

Ian raised his eye brows, looking almost defiant. "You, me, and Sophie."

"Yeah?" Mickey chuckled, "Where do you wanna go?"

He knew Mickey was just teasing him, but he stood his ground. "Somewhere far away. Somewhere Sophie would like …"

"What-you wanna go to fucking Disneyland?" Mickey laughed again.

Ian didn't crack a smile. "I'm serious."

Mickey sighed and looked down.

"Come on, Mickey," Ian moved slightly closer, "We could do it. I have some money saved … we could get a car …"

"Jesus, Ian! This isn't-this wouldn't be like when you fucked off to the army! We'd have a kid with us-we'd have to fucking plan this!"

"We could do it!" Ian insisted, "We could go somewhere Terry will never find us! We could bring Sophie somewhere safe!"

"I can't take Sophie away from Mandy-I can't raise her on my own."

"What about me?" He sounded frustrated.

"Oh yeah?" Mickey snapped, "And what am I supposed to do when you decide to split?"

Ian looked up at him. "I'm not gonna split," he said slowly.

"You did before." He raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not going to again, Mickey, I already told you!"

"This is different! We're talking about raising a fucking kid!"

"Look at the house I was raised in! I've been helping raise kids since I was fucking ten!"

Mickey swallowed and looked down.

"C'mon," Ian sighed, "think of Sophie."

There was a long, drawn out silence.

Mickey didn't know if he really believed they could pull this off. He would never admit it, but what Ian was describing sounded like heaven. Imagining it gave him the same standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff feeling that he got the first time he kissed Ian. He was uncomfortable with how comforted he was by the idea.

"Doesn't it sound-?"

"If you say 'gay,' I will fucking  _hit_  you," Ian interrupted, "Because how is wanting your daughter to be safe more gay than taking it up the ass?"

Mickey sighed.

Finally he looked up. "So how do we do this, then?"

 


	2. Chapter 2

Ian had gotten back home around five the next morning.

In the motel, they had talked about the idea of going away a little more. The more they talked about it, the more possible it seemed. Mickey had even started to to become keen on the idea. He admitted to Ian that, with Sophie, he'd like to get out of the south side. Ian promised to figure out a place for them to go by the next time they meet up.

As Ian walked quietly into the living room, he saw that the kitchen light was on. He realized that Lip was sitting at the table, and tried to get to the stairs without being noticed. It didn't work.

"Hey," he heard Lip call from the kitchen quietly, "Where've you been all night?"

Lip was only staying at the house for the summer. He had ended up going to MIT, and he'd be going into his senior year in the fall.

Ian groaned inwardly. He hadn't told Lip about Mickey yet. He knew Lip would give him shit about it, since, the first thing he did when Ian got back, was give him a lecture about how he shouldn't have let a "piece of shit like Mickey Milkovich fuck up his life."

He hadn't even tried to explain to Lip that he more fucked up Mickey's life than Mickey did his. Lip never liked Mickey, especially now that he blamed him for his brother being miserable for weeks and running away.

Ian walked into the kitchen. "I think I'm old enough to stay out all night," he said casually with a smirk. "What about you? Why're you up so early?"

"Liam woke me up, wanting a glass of water. Couldn't fall back asleep." He took a bite of the sandwich in front of him. "Really, though, you seeing someone? This isn't the first time you've been out all night since you got back."

Ian laughed, "It's none of your business."

"Oh, come on. Do we not tell each other tell each other everything anymore?"

Ian shrugged, "I don't think you'd like him …"

Lip scoffed. "Anyone's gonna be better than some of your past guys, like-Mickey Milkovich. I mean, it's not another 60 year old is it?"

"Fuck off," he laughed, "he's my age, okay?"

"Well … come on, do I know him?"

"Yeah … he's not really out yet, though."

"What-that didn't stop you from telling me about Mickey …" Lip started to laugh, but stopped, suddenly narrowing his eyes a bit, looking Ian up and down. A look of realization dawned his face. "Oh, fuck-"

"Lip-"

"You're fucking  _him_  again?" Lip yelled, giving no concern that it was still around five in the morning, in a house full of kids.

"You don't even know him, okay?"

"You know he's still married to that whore, right?" Lip looked disgusted. "And he has a kid!"

"I know about his kid," Ian said calmly, "I met her."

"Jesus Christ, Ian, why can't you find someone who's fucking normal for once?"

"Mickey's a good guy, Lip, he just hides it around most people."

"Did he at least apologize for making you leave for three and a half fucking years?"

"You know what," Ian said defiantly, "no. _I_ apologized to  _him_  for leaving him for three and a half fucking years. Does that make you happy?"

Lip stood up, "He got married, Ian!"

"His dad made him!"

He laughed cynically, "Bullshit! Is that what he told you?"

"You weren't there that day when his dad caught us."

"So what? You were, and you still left!"

"I made a mistake, okay? I  _shouldn't_  have left him."

"What the fuck, Ian? You're only  _mistake_  was going back to that shithead!"

Ian looked at Lip for a long moment. "He loves me," he finally said quietly.

Lip gave a sarcastic nod. "He said that to you?"

"He doesn't have to say it."

"You know he's just using you for sex, right? He  _can't_  love-the guy doesn't have a fucking  _heart_!"

"Would you shut the fuck up about Mickey like you even know him? Have you even had a single conversation with him in the past three years?"

"I don't need to  _talk_ to him to know he made my brother disappear for three years."

"He didn't  _make_ me! It was my own fault!" Ian yelled. "Besides if Mickey's just using me then how come we're-"

Ian cut himself off. He wasn't going to tell anyone their plans. At least not yet.

"You're  _what,_ Ian?"

"Nothing."

"You're  _what_?"

"Just drop it, Lip! It's none of you're business."

"Look, whatever you're planning, just be careful, alright? Gay or not, he's still a Milkovich."

Ian sighed. "I'm fine, Lip."

"Hey!"

Both Ian and Lip looked up to see Debbie standing at the top of the stairs.

"Some of us are trying to  _sleep_  here! I have to get up in two hours to set up for daycare!"

Lip sighed, glanced at Ian, and said, "Yeah, sorry, Debs. We were just about to go up, anyway."

Ian sighed and stomped upstairs, pushing past Debbie.

Debbie looked at Lip. "He's only been back a couple months-do we  _really_  need to start fighting with him already?"

"I'm not trying to  _fight_  with him," he raised his voice, hoping Ian would hear, "I'm trying to  _help_  him!"

* * *

Mickey had left the motel a couple hours later. They always did that, in case, for whatever reason, someone who knew Mickey's dad saw them.

He was able to walk from the motel to Mandy's house-it was only a few blocks.

He couldn't shake the idea that Ian planted in his mind. Mickey hated getting his hopes up for things. If he always expected the worst possible outcome, then he was either right, or pleasantly surprised.

Mickey let himself into the apartment when he got there-Mandy and Dan had given him a key since he came over with Sophie so often.

Mickey had never really decided if he liked Dan or not. He was sarcastic, and had a smart mouth, but only when you got to know him. Besides that, he was quiet and actually kind of dumb-looking. Without knowing him, one would think he was a typical south side thug.

Mandy had met him one night when she was trying to cheer herself up over Lip leaving for college, and having to accept the fact that they were done for good. She had gone out to a couple of bars and some old creep was bugging her, going as far as following her out of the place. That's when Dan showed up, pretended to be Mandy's boyfriend, and scared the guy off. The gesture had reminded her of the time Ian tripped their pervy teacher for her. Fortunately, this time the guy hadn't ended up being gay.

Mandy was sitting on the couch, with Sophie on her lap, when Mickey walked in. She was putting Sophie's hair up in pigtails.

"Daddy!" Sophie exclaimed, reaching out her arms.

Mickey sat down on the couch, and Sophie crawled over to his lap.

"Hey, how was your sleepover?" Mickey asked.

Before Sophie could answer, Mandy said, "How was  _your_  sleepover?" and gave him a knowing grin.

He rolled his eyes. "Fuck off."

" _You_  had a sleepover too, Daddy?" Sophie asked, looking up at him.

"A different kind of sleepover." Mickey answered.

"What kind of sleepover?"

"I'll tell you when you're older."

Sophie pouted.

"Really, though, how was it?" Mandy asked.

"Really, though, fuck off."

Dan then walked in then, carrying two bowls of Fruity Pebbles. He set down the smaller bowl in Sophie's lap and sat down with the other. "Hey," he said to Mickey, as he turned on the TV. He was quiet for a moment, before looking at Mickey, smirking, and saying, "So … how was your gay thing?"

Mickey looked at his sister, "The fuck, Mandy? The whole neighborhood gotta know my business?"

Mandy shrugged. "What? You think Dan cares?"

"I don't give a shit about who  _cares_ , I don't want people knowing my business!" He yelled.

"Relax," Mandy said, "I'm not telling anyone else."

"What if something gets back to dad?"

"Nothing will get back to dad, okay? I'm not telling anyone-"

"You fucking told this asshole!"

"Well Dan's not telling anyone."

Dan nodded, not looking away from the TV, "It's true-I don't even have any friends left since I started dating your sister, so I have no one to tell."

Mandy turned and flicked Dan's ear.

Sophie suddenly gave a loud, heavy breath. She handed her now empty bowl up to Mickey, and reclined into his chest, getting comfy.

Mickey scowled down at her. Truthfully, he thought it was adorable when she did that kind of shit-always handing him her dishes, or garbage when there would be a trash right next to her-but she needed to learn to knock it off, before she became a lazy, spoiled brat.

"Sophie," he tried to sound stern, "go bring this into the kitchen."

"Why?" She whined.

"Because  _I'm_  not doing it for you," he handed her back the bowl.

Sophie sighed and climbed down from Mickey's lap, onto the floor.

She made it about halfway to the kitchen before tripping and falling flat on her face.

She let out a small whimper, as Mickey rushed over to her.

"Hey, hey," he said, helping her sit up, "you okay?"

Sophie pouted. " _You_  made me fall."

Mickey raised his eyebrows, " _I_  made you fall?"

She nodded. "You made me go to the kitchen," she whined.

Mickey rolled his eyes, but checked her face and arms for for any scratches or marks. "You're fine," he patted her on the back, and stood up. "C'mon," he reached out a hand and helped her to her feet, "now go put the bowl in the sink."

Sophie picked up the bowl and took slow steps, dragging her feet, and making grunting and whining noises, as if she were in pain.

Mickey looked back at Mandy and Dan, who were trying not to laugh. "Can you believe that little shit?"

"Well she is  _your_  kid," Mandy said.

Sophie came out of the kitchen, pouting, and looked up at Mickey.

"Whatcha' pouting for?" He asked, sounding a lot less stern, and picking her up. "You did a good job."

"I did?" She whimpered.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"Can I get a new toy?"

Mickey laughed. Any time he would tell her she did a good job with something, she would try to get a new toy out of it. Luckily, she never made too much of a fuss if he said "no."

"I don't have enough money for a new toy," he said.

"Okay," Sophie sighed and leaned her head on Mickey's shoulder.

They hung out at Mandy's for a few hours before Mickey figured they were on the verge of overstaying their visit.

On the way back home, Mickey decided to stop at McDonald's. He couldn't afford a nice new toy, but he could at least get Sophie a Happy Meal, and a shitty McDonald's toy.

They sat at the booth for a few minutes, Sophie playing with her toy and Mickey eating his McDouble, before he spoke.

"Hey, Sophie." He had Ian's idea of going away stuck in his head again. He wondered if the whole thing would be something that could traumatize a three year old. But then he figured that it would probably do a lot more harm to stay in the house they were living in, than to leave all together.

Sophie looked up at Mickey.

"If you could go anywhere in the world," he asked, "where would you go?"

"Um …" she put a finger to her chin as if she were in deep thought. "Aunt Mandy's."

"What?" Mickey scoffed, reaching across the table and stealing one of her fries. "No.  _Anywhere_  in the world!"

Sophie didn't understand why "Aunt Mandy's" wasn't a good answer, but tried again. "The park?"

Mickey sighed. He knew he wouldn't get much from a three year old who barely knew the world was bigger than Chicago, but he had to ask her.

"Are we going to the park today?" Sophie then asked, looking excited.

Mickey tried not to roll his eyes. He supposed it was his own fault for bringing it up. "Yeah," he said, easily giving in, "if you want to."


	3. Chapter 3

Ian actually did some research to find a place to go. Eventually he decided to suggest a small town. It'd be a lot nicer than where they were now. Ian still wasn't even sure that Mickey wouldn't change his mind in a second. He knew Mickey was serious about protecting Sophie, but he would also probably freak out with too much change.

He found a city in New England that was a lot smaller than Chicago, but one of the biggest cities in it's area. It also happened to be one of the top cities recommended for openly gay couples to live-but he'd leave that part out when telling Mickey about it.

He even looked up the elementary schools in the district, and their website bragged about all of their after school programs and their "involvement with the community," and had a ton of pictures of children smiling and playing on the playgrounds, and in the classrooms.

Ian and Mickey were able to meet up again two weeks later, this time Ian brought the family's laptop and showed Mickey the school website and the town's Facebook page.

Mickey listened with raised eyebrows and a skeptical look.

Ian looked back at him. "Oh, c'mon," he said, seeing the look on his face. He pointed to a picture of a group of kindergartners sitting in a classroom, smiling and waving at the camera. "Don't you want that to be Sophie? All smiling and happy at C. S. Smith Elementary …"

Mickey rolled his eyes, but Ian could tell he was intrigued.

"Look-this town's not the complete opposite of where we live now-it's not all suburb-y- it's like a smaller, cleaner, safer Chicago."

Mickey shrugged, "And so … what-I'm just supposed to quit my job? What if there aren't any jobs out there?"

"I'll find jobs, okay? Before we even decide to go." Ian said, "I mean, there's gotta be something."

"And … we'd be like … living-"

"Living together-yeah." Ian interrupted.

"And how do I know you're not just , you know, using me and Sophie to help you live out some gay fantasy where you get a guy and a kid to match?"

"You  _know_  because I've never given much thought to having kids," Ian admitted. "And that 'gay fantasy,'" he added using air quotes, "is some bullshit you just barely made up-maybe that's your  _own subconscious_  gay fantasy."

Mickey rolled his eyes, "Fuck off, man."

After a moment, he said, "Why the hell would you even do this if you don't want kids?"

"It's not that I don't  _want_  kids-I just never thought I'd have the chance, you know? I don't exactly see an accidental pregnancy in my future."

"What if Sophie doesn't even like you?" Mickey said.

"Oh come on, Sophie loves me," Ian insisted.

He shook his head, "She met you  _once_ , okay? She's like a dog-she loves everyone the first time she meets them."

"Fine," Ian said, simply, "let me watch Sophie for a day or two, then."

"I dunno-"

"Look, Debbie runs a daycare during the week, so if she does hate me, she'll have all those other kids to play with or something."

Mickey bit the inside of his cheek for a moment. Finally he sighed. "Alright. You can watch her on Monday … but if I hear one complaint from her about you then this whole thing is off."

Ian grinned, "Great," he said, "She'll love me."

"Right," Mickey said, "Can we shut up and fuck already?"

Ian raised his eyebrows, as if he were annoyed, but figured the rest of the talk could wait until later, as he pushed Mickey into the bed.

* * *

Monday morning was as normal as every other one, but Mickey actually almost felt nervous. He never trusted anyone other than Mandy to watch Sophie-except once when he had to run to the store and the only one home was Iggy. It was late at night-too late to bring Sophie out with him-but Mickey realized she was wearing her last pair of pull-ups, and he had to get some more.

Iggy made a surprisingly good uncle. Mickey figured it was because he basically had the intelligence of a child already.

When Mickey had gotten back from the store, Iggy was helping Sopphie build a dinosaur out of her DUPLO blocks.

Iggy was even-almost-the reason why Mickey named her Sophie. When Svetlana found out it was a girl, and showed no interest in picking out a name, and Mickey didn't have any ideas, Iggy had been the one to rip out a page in some old baby book, put it on a dart board, and suggest Mickey choose the first name he hit that wasn't a white-trash, stripper name. Mickey had ended up becoming really fond of the name Sophie before she was even born.

At the moment, Iggy, along with everyone else in the house besides Mickey and Sophie, was still asleep. Neither Iggy, Joey, or Terry had real jobs, and Svetlana usually only had work at night. Just like every morning, it was just him and Sophie. Mickey preffered it that way.

Unfortunately that didn't last long as Terry stumbled into the kitchen, wearing only his boxers and smoking a cigarette. It was clear he had a bad hangover.

"What the fuck did I say about leaving these damn toys all over the place?" He yelled, picking up one of Sophie's dolls from the table and chucking it across the room.

"Hey!" Sophie yelled at him.

Terry ignored her, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed back to the living room.

Sophie looked like she was about to start crying, so Mickey went over, picked up her doll, and handed it to her. It didn't work, and Mickey could see a tantrum coming. He quickly picked her up before she started crying.

She let out a loud wail and Mickey pulled her close to him. "Sshh, Sophie, its okay."

She wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and started crying into his chest. "Daddy ..." she whimpered.

Mickey rubbed her back. "Sshh, c'mon, stop crying. Everything's okay."

"I wanna go to Aunt Mandy's," she cried.

Mickey sighed. He had told Sophie the night before that she wouldn't be going to Mandy's that day, but he'd been vague about where she  _was_  going. He didn't want to mention the name "Ian" or remind her of "the man she found in Daddy's bed" in case she mentioned either things around Terry. He just told Sophie she'd be hanging out with a friend of his.

She hadn't seemed too excited, but Mickey had tried to assure her she'd still have fun.

"I told you," Mickey said to Sophie quietly, "you're not going to Aunt Mandy's today."

This made Sophie cry harder and start kicking her legs.

"Sophie, stop!" he said a little more harshly, "You'll see Aunt Mandy tomorrow, okay?"

She was still sobbing into Mickey's shirt, and now slightly louder than before.

"Would you shut that kid up?" Terry yelled from the living room.

Mickey rolled his eyes, moved into his bedroom, and closed the door, hoping it would muffle Sophie's sobs.

"Sophie, you need to stop crying," he said softly, setting her on the bed. He knelt down so he was face to face with her. "You're going to have a lot of fun today, okay? And you're going to see Aunt Mandy tomorrow."

Sophie's sobs died down, but only slightly.

Svetlana groaned from the other side of the bed and sat up. "I was trying to sleep," she snapped.

Mickey ignored her, and wiped away the tears on Sophie's cheeks. She still wasn't completely silent.

Svetlana lied back down on the bed, and tried covering her head with a pillow. After a moment, she sighed and sat up again. "If she doesn't shut up, I'm going to hit her!"

Mickey stood up suddenly and glared at her. "You lay a  _finger_  on her, and I'll fucking kill you." His voice was steady and dangerous. He stared Svetlana down until she lied back down on the bed and turned away from them. "Come on, Sophie," he finally said, looking down at his daughter, "let's go get your back pack ready."

He grabbed Sophie's hand and lead her into the other room. He helped her pack a bag, and they left the house-at least 15 minutes before they even had to.

Mickey told Ian to meet them at the park, so he wouldn't have to risk being seen at the Gallagher house, or have to explain to anyone who might answer the door, that wasn't Ian, why he was there.

Mickey was pushing Sophie on the swings for 20 minutes before Ian finally showed up.

"Hey," Ian said, walking up to Mickey.

"Jesus, finally," Mickey muttered.

Ian looked at his watch. "Its 8:59 ... you told me to be here at nine ..."

"Whatever," he grunted. He stopped Sophie's swing. "Sophie," he said, motioning for her to come closer to Ian, "hey, do you remember my friend, Ian?"

Sophie slowly looked Ian up and down. "Yeah," she finally said, looking back at her daddy.

"Ian's going to be watching you today," Mickey told her, crouching down so he was at her level, "is that okay?"

Sophie didn't say anything, but glanced back at Ian.

"Come on," Mickey said, "he's really nice-you're gonna have lots of fun today, okay?"

Ian then knelt down too. "Hi Sophie," he said tentatively. "We can do anything you'd like today."

Sophie slowly looked from Ian, to Mickey, and back. "Can we go to the zoo?"

Mickey looked at her. "How do you know what a zoo is?"

"Aunt Mandy said it has all the manimals and the monkeys and zebras. I wanna see the manimals, Daddy."

He looked at Sophie with raised eyebrows for a moment before looking up at Ian. "Well, you heard her. She wants to see the manimals."

"Sophie," Ian said to the girls, "I would  _love_  to take you to the zoo."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Yay!" Sophie ran over to Ian and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Ian laughed and hugged her back. He looked up at Mickey, smirking and raising his eyebrows.

Mickey just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Hey Sophie," he then said to his daughter.

Sophie let go of Ian and turned back to her daddy.

"I gotta get to work," he said, "C'mere." He pulled Sophie into his arms and she hugged him back. "I'll see you at six, okay?" He kissed the top of her head. "Love you."

"Love you too, Daddy!"

Mickey stood back up and looked at Ian. "One fucking complaint," he said almost threateningly. "See ya."

Ian and Sophie took the El to the zoo. It was surprisingly busy for a Monday morning.

Ian had only been to the zoo once himself, on a school field trip. He never really cared too much about seeing different kinds of animals, but Sophie was having the time of her life.

"Where are the zebras?" Sophie asked as soon as they got through the reptile room that was near the entrance.

"Well ..." Ian said, looking at a nearby sign with a map on it, "It looks like they're all the way at the back of the place ... do you wanna see any other animals on our way to the zebras?"

Sophie pouted, "No, I wanna see the zebras first."

Ian raised his eyebrows. "Its gonna be a long walk."

"I wanna see the zebras first." Sophie repeated, completely serious.

"Okay ..." Ian figured it would be useless to argue with a three year old.

When they were halfway to the zebras, Sophie stopped to watch the gorillas they were going by. "Look at the monkeys!" she yelled excitedly.

"Those are gorillas," Ian told her.

She looked up at him. "Grilla?"

"Yeah."

She looked back at the gorillas. "Why are they fat?"

Ian laughed. "I don't know," he said, "some animals are just fat."

"Do the grillas eat little girls?"

He looked down at her. "Uh ... no. Gorillas just eat plants ... and bananas. Why would you think they eat little girls?"

"Slutlana said that there are animals who eat little girls and they're called monsters and they live in the closet and under the couch and she said they would eat me if I played with her make up again." Sophie said it all very seriously.

Ian hesitated and furrowed his brow. "And ... what did your daddy say about the monsters?"

She shook her head. "Daddy didn't say about the monsters."

"Well you should tell him about the monsters, okay? See what he has to say about them."

"Okay."

Ian knew Svetlana probably resented Mickey and Sophie and, after being forced to have a kid and forced into a marriage she never wanted, he couldn't really blame her. But she didn't have to lie to, and scare Sophie.

They stayed and watched the gorillas for a few minutes-Sophie loved them-before she suddenly gasped and looked at Ian. "The zebras! We need to see the zebras!" She started running toward the direction they had been walking.

Ian stood there in shock for only a second before snapping out of it and chasing after her. "Sophie-wait-!"

He managed to catch her around the middle, and he quickly picked her up.

She was squirming like crazy. "The zebras! We gotta get to the zebras!"

"Sophie! Listen to me," he tried to make his voice as serious as possible, "the zebras are gonna be there all day, okay? And you should  _never_  run away like that again. You should stick by my side, okay?"

"Okay, I'm sorry, can we go see the zebras now?" she said it all in one breath.

Ian rolled his eyes. "Sophie, if you run away like that again, something bad could happen to you!"

"Can we  _please_  see the zebras now?" She wasn't listening to him.

"Does your dad let you run off like that?" he asked.

"Daddy would be mad at me ..." she said quiety.

"See?" he said, "If you wouldn't do that to your dad, why would you do that to me?"

"I'm sorry," she said again, like it was scripted. It seemed like she had been taught to say "sorry" whenever someone was upset with her. Ian wondered if Mickey had actually taught his kid some manners, or if that was Mandy's doing.

Ian decided that Sophie's last apology was enough and started heading toward the zebras.

He had been a little wary to put Sophie down again, but finally did so she could walk up to the fence and get a good look at the zebras.

After the zebras, Ian and Sophie made their way back toward the entrance, stopping for a moment to see every animal on the way.

Ian bought Sophie an ice cream, which got more on her face than in her mouth. "How'd you get it on your forehead ...?" He asked, as he wiped her face with a napkin.

Sophie just shrugged and licked her ice-cream-covered hands.

Ian let her play on the zoo's playground for a little while, before they'd have to leave.

As he sat on the bench, watching Sophie play, a young woman sat down next to him. "So which one's yours?" She asked, smiling.

"Uh, that one," he pointed to Sophie. Sophie actually didn't look anything like him, but he wasn't going to explain to a complete stranger that he was only watching his gay lover's kid, so he'd be willing to run away with him.

Sophie was climbing up one of the slides, blocking a couple of kids from going down.

"Oh she's adorable," the woman said, "that's my son over there." She pointed to a little blond boy on the jungle gym.

Ian looked at her. She was also blond, and looked younger than he was. "How old is he?" he asked.

"Four ... I had him when I was 15," she admitted, "What about you-you seem a bit young to be a parent?"

"Uh, yeah ... Sophie's three." He felt weird pretending that Sophie was his kid without Mickey knowing.

"Sophie-that's a pretty name. So ... does she get her dark hair from her mother?"

"Yeah, I guess ..."

"So where is she?" the woman looked around, trying to see if Sophie's mother would be there.

"She's ... at work ..." Ian said.

The woman smiled. "Aw, so you're like a stay-at-home dad?"

"Sure ..."

"So your wife must not be home a lot, then?"

Ian just raised his eyebrows at her.

"Well we should definitely get my George and your Sophie together for a play date sometime," the woman continued, "especially if your wife's not home. Don't you think your daughter should have a female influence around? My name's Nicki, by the way."

Ian just looked at the top of her head and said, "Your roots are starting to show," before getting up and walking away.

He walked over to where Sophie was playing and picked her up. "C'mon," he said, "we should go get you some lunch."

They walked out of the zoo, Ian ignoring Nicki's glare at him, headed for the El, and took it back to the Gallagher house.

Ian took her in through the front door, knowing that the kids from daycare would be in the kitchen for lunch.

"Where are we?" Sophie asked when they walked in.

"This is where I live," Ian answered, "so ... how about I make you a grilled cheese?"

He lead Sophie over to the couch and turned on the TV, when Debbie walked into the living room.

She stopped when she saw Sophie. "Uh ... Ian, who's this?"

"Friend of mine's kid," he answered, moving past her into the kitchen, "watching her for the day."

She looked confused. "Is this friend of your's paying you?"

"Uh ... no," he answered distractedly, looking for a pan, and grabbing the bread.

"What? Why not?" She sounded annoyed, "How am I supposed to run a business here if you're watching kids for free?"

"It's just this one kid ... this one time," Ian said. He started the grilled cheese, and peeked back in the living room at Sophie. She was sitting mostly still, watching the TV.

"Whose kid is she, anyway?" Debbie asked, eyeing the girl.

"Uh ..." he looked at her, wondering how he was going to explain this. "Mickey Milkovich ..."

"Since when are you friends with  _Mickey Milkovich_?"

"Mandy wanted me to watch her," Ian muttered, "She, uh, wanted the day off."

"Okay," Debbie sighed, "but tell her if she wants another day off then either she or Mickey's gonna have to pay."

"It's just this one time," Ian repeated.

Debbie finally let it go and turned her attention back to the other kids.

Ian finished Sophie's grilled cheese and brought it out to her. She ate it without complaint, even though one of the corners was partially burnt.

They sat watching TV for less than a half an hour before Sophie got bored and Ian had to borrow some toys from Debbie's daycare.

He patiently helped her build three houses out of blocks before she knocked them all down without warning.

She got really excited when Ian brought out the finger paint, having no other ideas of what she would want to do. He let her wear one of his t-shirts as a smock, and didn't mind when she got paint all over it.

She ended up playing with a couple other kids from the daycare, which was nice because Ian got to relax a little, and watch TV while they played on the floor.

Sophie came up to Ian at one point, holding one of the boys' hands. "Ian!" She said, "I have a boyfriend! His name's Josh!"

Before Ian could say anything, the boy pulled away from her hand, saying "I'm not your boyfriend!" And ran away.

Sophie ran after him. "Josh!"

Ian laughed, even though he felt a little bad for Sophie. Of course she was three, and probably wouldn't remember any of it tomorrow.

At one point Lip walked into the living room, and looked at Ian sitting on the couch, surrounded by all the kids.

"Taking over Debbie's daycare?" he joked.

"She's in the kitchen," Ian answered.

Sophie ran up to Ian again. "Ian, Josh won't be my boyfriend!" She looked genuinely hurt by this.

"Well you don't need a boyfriend," he said simply.

"But Josh is cute," she whined.

Ian leaned forward so they were face to face. "There are a lot of cute boys, Sophie, and Josh doesn't sound that nice anyway."

"Okay," she whimpered and walked back to the group of kids.

"What the hell is Mickey's kid doing here?"

Ian turned to Lip. He didn't realize he'd still been watching him.

Ian didn't say anything and looked away.

"What-he sign her up for the daycare or something?"

"No," he said slowly, "I'm watching her for him."

Lip gave a sarcastic laugh. "Oh I see what's going on here," he said, "Mickey's fucking you so you'll watch his kid for him."

"Why do you have to be such a dick?" Ian snapped.

"The guy's bad news, Ian," Lip said as he turned and headed for the kitchen, "the sooner you realize that, the better."

Ian got up and followed him. "I'm watching his kid so she'll know me and like me! If it was just about sex, why would he want to get his kid involved at all?"

Lip stopped and looked Ian with a raised eyebrow. He stared at him for a long moment.

"He really loves you?" he finally asked.

"Yeah, he does." Ian answered defiantly.

"So, what-is he gonna leave his wife or something?" For the first time, Lip didn't sound like he was mocking Ian, but seriously wanting to know.

He shrugged, "I'm ... working on something."

Lip smirked, "What-a kidnapping?"

Ian gave a smile this time. "Yeah, something like that."

 


	4. Chapter 4

Ian brought Sophie back to the park around six for Mickey to pick her up.

When Sophie saw Mickey walking toward them, she ran up to him, squealing "Daddy!"

Mickey picked her up, grinning, and kissed the side of her head.

Ian really loved that sometimes. He loved that Sophie was so easily able to bring out the best in Mickey. He loved that Mickey had someone in his life who could do that. Even when Sophie wasn't around, just talking about her made Mickey happy.

"Daddy, I saw the zebras and grillas!"

"Yeah?" he said, "So did you have fun today?"

"Yeah, we did painting and I had ice cream and I held Josh's hand."

"Who the fuck's Josh?" Mickey asked with raised eyebrows.

"Josh is my boyfriend, Daddy. He's really cute!" she said.

Mickey actually chuckled a little. "You're too young to have a boyfriend."

She pouted a little. "But Aunt Mandy has a boyfriend!"

"Aunt Mandy's a lot older than you are. When you're Aunt Mandy's age, then  _maybe_  you can have a boyfriend."

Ian laughed. "Yeah, but Mandy was a lot younger than she is now when she got her first boyfriend."

Mickey ignored his comment, looking up at Ian. "Where the fuck were you when my three year old was getting a boyfriend?"

Ian held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I told her she didn't need a boyfriend. I even told her Josh wasn't nice."

"But then I let Josh use the blue marker and he said he would be my boyfriend." Sophie explained, proudly.

Mickey raised his eyebrows again. "No, you shouldn't have a boyfriend, especially if he makes you give up the blue marker."

"But he's really cute!"

"Yeah, but you're cuter," he said.

"But-"

"No," Mickey said, "You can't have a boyfriend."

Sophie pouted, but didn't say anything more.

"So I think Sophie likes me," Ian said after a moment.

Mickey raised his eyebrows. "Yeah?" he looked at his daughter, "Sophie, what do you think my friend, Ian?"

Sophie didn't say anything.

"Come on," Mickey urged, "you said you had fun today."

"Yeah," she mumbled.

"You want Ian to watch you again sometime?"

Sophie nodded, but was still pouting.

"Sophie," Ian said, trying to distract her from why she was upset, "why don't you show your daddy what you painted?"

"It's in my bag," she said.

"Yeah?" Mickey said, setting her down, "I wanna see it." He helped her take off her tiny pink back pack and unzipped it, pulling out a piece of paper. "This it?"

"Yeah," she said. It was nothing more than a bunch of random swirls and smudges of paint. Then there were a bunch of yellow spots all over the paper. "Those are stars," she said to Mickey, "I named them."

"You named the stars?" Mickey said, "Stars don't have names."

"Yes they do!" Sophie argued, "These ones do!"

"Okay then," he said slowly, kneeling down beside her and holding up the painting so they were both looking at it, "What are their names?"

"Um," she pointed to one of the stars, "this one's the Daddy star, and this is the Sophie star . . . this is the Aunt Mandy star, and Uncle Iggy star, and Uncle Dan star . . . and that one's the Ian star."

Mickey looked at his daughter with a raised eyebrow. "Why're we all stars?"

"Stars are pretty," she said like it should've been obvious. Then she looked down and said quietly, "Grandpa's not a star."

"Yeah? You painted Grandpa too?"

She pointed to a grey ball of scribbles. "He's in there. That's his cell."

"He's in a cell?"

"He went to jail for being mean to me."

Mickey nodded a bit. "Seems fair." After a moment he said, "You know you can't tell Grandpa about this, right?"

"I know," Sophie said, "Grandpa would get mad again."

"You can't talk about Ian around Grandpa either, okay?" Mickey then said, nodding his head toward Ian.

"Why not?"

He sighed. "Because Grandpa doesn't like Ian," he explained, "If Grandpa knows that we spent time with Ian, he's gonna be angry again."

"But why?" Sophie whined, "I like Ian!"

Ian smiled at this, and noticed Mickey trying not to smile too.

"I know," Mickey said, "but Grandpa  _doesn't_  like Ian, so you can't talk about him," he quickly glanced up at Ian, then leaned a bit closer to Sophie and whispered, "if you do, he'll get angry again and you'll have to go hide under the bed."

"Okay," she finally said, looking upset.

"Hey, don't worry, we can still hang out with Ian," Mickey assured her, picking her back up, "we just can't talk about it."

"Can I see Ian tomorrow?" She asked excitedly.

Mickey laughed, "But you're going to Aunt Mandy's tomorrow. You were so upset that you weren't going to see her this morning."

"Oh yeah," Sophie said.

"Oh yeah," Mickey mocked her, with a laugh.

"You know," Ian spoke up, "if you need me to watch her again..."

Mickey turned to him, with a scowl, "Why don't you have a job or something?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I'm looking for one in another state."

Mickey stared at him for a moment, his face unreadable, before glancing away, muttering, "Yeah, maybe," answering the question Ian didn't have to ask.

"Think about it..." he said, before starting to turn away, "See ya. Bye, Sophie!"

"Bye, Ian!" Sophie waved excitedly, as Mickey started turning the other direction.

As Mickey walked back to the house, his daughter still in his arms, Sophie looked up at him, "I like Ian, Daddy."

"Yeah, you said that."

"Do you like Ian?" she asked.

Mickey looked at her. "Of course I like Ian."

"Why doesn't Grandpa like Ian?"

"I don't know," he lied, "Grandpa doesn't like a lot of people."

As they got closer to the house, he said, "Remember that you can't talk about this when we get home, though."

"I won't," Sophie promised.

Luckily she did drop the subject then, even though Mickey could tell she was dying to talk more about her day. He was grateful he had a kid smart enough to listen to him.

There was music blaring throughout the house when they walked in. There was a man, that Mickey didn't recognize, passed out on the couch. Loud voices were coming from the kitchen, and he knew that his brothers had probably invited over some friends-or  _clients_.

He was used to this shit, but it was ridiculous for them to be doing this on a fucking Monday.

He walked Sophie to her room and told her to stay in there.

"But what about dinner?" She asked.

"I'll bring you dinner, you can eat in your room tonight." He said, setting her on the bed.

"I want mac and cheese."

"You'll get whatever I fucking make you," He snapped before leaving her room. Having strange men in the house, at the same time as his daughter, always put him on edge.

In the kitchen, there was group of men sitting at the table, including Joey and Iggy, all with beers, taking turns snorting lines of coke.

"Hey, Mickey! Come do a line with us!" One of the guys yelled.

Mickey ignored him and started looking for something for Sophie to eat.

"Nah, Mickey quit, remember?" another guy teased, "He's a  _daddy_  now."

Mickey  _had_  stopped doing coke anytime his daughter was home. The first time he did it after Sophie had been born, she had only been a month old. Mickey had been so high that when she started crying, he freaked out, brought her into the kitchen, and just left her on the counter.

Luckily Mandy had still been living in the house at the time. The next morning when he realized Sophie wasn't in the crib that sat next to his bed, he pounded on Mandy's door. She came out of her room, glaring at him.

"I don't know where I put the kid!" he admitted, panicking.

Mandy hadn't said anything, but opened her door far enough for him to see Sophie laying on Mandy's bed, fast asleep. Mandy had found Sophie crying on the counter not ten minutes after Mickey put her there. She'd taken care of Sophie the rest of the night.

He moved to go into the room, but Mandy stopped him. He recognized the look on her face, and tried to take a step back, but wasn't able to before she reached out and hit him in the face.

"Fuck!" Mickey grabbed his face. He was definitely going to have a bruise on his right cheekbone. "Mandy, what the fuck-?"

"I'm not taking care of your kid for you every time you feel like getting high!" She practically spit at him, "What if I had been out somewhere-what if she had rolled off the counter before I found her! You're gonna end up killing this kid!"

"I'm not gonna  _kill_  her, okay! ? It was a mistake-I didn't even know what I was I doing!"

"How much fucking coke did you snort?"

"I don't remember," he admitted.

"You're lucky you're even still alive." She looked disgusted, "I should call child protective services or something."

Mickey rolled his eyes, "Come on, you're  _not_  gonna call child protective services."

"But I  _should_! I mean, I'm surprised you'd even care to have her around if you're just gonna pull this kind of shit!"

"Look-it's not gonna happen again, alright?" Mickey said, moving around her and into the bedroom.

Sophie was just opening her eyes as Mickey approached her. She had that dumb baby look on her face, which Mickey kind of loved, as she started slowly squirming her arms around and making little grunting noises.

He picked her up as gently as he could and turned back to the door.

Mandy was still glaring at him.

"It's not gonna happen again," he repeated quietly this time.

"If it does, I'm gonna have them come take her away," Mandy said fiercely, "If you're gonna be a shitty parent, at least give someone else the chance to be a good one."

After that, Mickey didn't do coke if Sophie was in the house, no matter how much his brothers tried to get him to.

While Mickey was in the kitchen, with his brothers and his brothers' friends-whose names he didn't ever care enough to remember-he did actually try to look for mac and cheese for Sophie. Unfortunately they were out, and she was going to have to settle for ramen.

"Hey, Mickey, bring the kid out!" Joey yelled drunkenly, "I told everyone she can count to ten now!"

Mickey rolled his eyes, as he started boiling the water. "She  _can't_  count to ten yet," he said, "she's barely toilet trained."

"What? Do kids need to use the toilet before they can count to ten nowadays?" one the guys barked with a laugh, "Larry in there isn't even toilet trained, I don't think!"

They all laughed, as he gestured to the man who was passed out on the couch.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure he can count to ten, either!" Another guy yelled.

Mickey laughed with everyone else, but knew he'd probably enjoy himself a lot more if he'd had a couple of beers.

When he was finished making the noodles, he went back into Sophie's room, with two bowls. She was sitting on her bed, playing with some toys. Mickey sat down on the bed next to her and handed her one of the bowls. "We didn't have any mac and cheese," he said before she could start complaining.

Sophie didn't seem too disappointed when she took the bowl, though.

"Who are the people in the house?" She asked after a minute.

"They're Uncle Iggy and Uncle Joey's friends." he said.

"Are they you're friends too, Daddy?"

"Nope, I don't have any friends."

"But Ian's your friend!" Sophie argued.

"Hey," Mickey looked at her sharply, "what did I say about talking about him?"

"Oops!" Sophie clasped a hand to her mouth and suddenly looked around her room, crazily, as if Terry would pop out of nowhere. "Sorry, Daddy," she then whispered.

"It's okay," he said, patting her back, "Just be careful when Grandpa's around."

When they both finished eating, Mickey went back into the kitchen, had a beer, and hung out for a little while. Unfortunately, Mickey barely had enough patience with these people when he wasn't sober, but it was a lot harder when he was the only one who was.

Eventually Mickey decided it was close to the time Sophie should go to bed, and figured he should give her a bath now.

He brought Sophie into the bathroom, who only fussed a little at the idea of a bath.

Mickey sat on the floor next to the tub, while Sophie played around in the water for a bit. He always put off washing her hair since she hated that part.

She sat and played in the bubbles that were made with shampoo instead of actual bubble bath, and with the few toys she had, when the door burst open.

One of the guys from the kitchen drunkenly stumbled into the bathroom, paying no attention to Mickey or Sophie as he unzipped his pants.

Mickey covered Sophie's eyes and yelled, "Hey! What the fuck-! ? Get out of here!"

They guy ignored him as he took a piss, getting most on the seat that he hadn't bothered lifting up.

When he finished, he turned around like he had just noticed them. "Shit, sorry, man."

"Fuck off!" Mickey snapped and glared at the guy until he left.

"Jesus fucking Christ," he muttered, moving his hand from Sophie's face, and reaching to grab her shampoo.

Sophie automatically scooted away from him. "No," she pouted, covering her head with her arms.

"C'mon," Mickey sighed, "I gotta wash your hair."

"No," She repeated, "I don't like it."

"Just be a big girl and get it over with."

She just shook her head, her arms still covering her hair.

"Did it hurt last time I washed your hair?" Mickey asked with raised eyebrows.

"No," she whimpered quietly.

"So it's not gonna hurt this time," he said, grabbing her arms and moving them from her head, "Just, come here."

When she was finally all clean, and in her pajamas, Mickey brought her back to her room. Music was still blasting from the kitchen, as he tucked her in.

"I'm gonna tell them to turn the music down," he told her, as he pulled the covers up around her, "When I do, I want you to go right to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," she said.

"And how about this time you try not get up in the middle of the night."

Just as Mickey turned to leave, Sophie said, "Daddy?"

He turned around, "What?"

"Are there monsters in my closet?" She asked.

Mickey looked confused. He'd never even told her about monsters. "What? No."

"What about under the couch?"

"No," he said, "there aren't any monsters under the couch, in your closet, under your bed or anywhere else, okay? Who the fuck said there were monsters, anyway?"

"Slutlana said that there were," she whispered.

"Well  _Slut_ lana is a stupid bitch, okay? Monsters aren't real," he walked up to her bed, "And don't tell her that I called her a bitch, alright?"

"Alright," Sophie agreed, as Mickey bent down and kissed the top of her head.

"Okay. Goodnight."

When Mickey went back into the kitchen, he walked up to the old radio that the music was coming from, and just turned it off. No one even noticed. He rolled his eyes as he grabbed another beer, and headed for the living room.

He tried just watching TV for a while, but even as more than half the people in the house finally left, they were still annoying the fuck out of him. Eventually he gave up and just went to bed, trying to block out the sounds of obnoxious laughter.

Not long after he was finally able to drift off to sleep, he was jolted awake by the sound of gunshot ringing throughout the house. It took him a moment to realize it hadn't been a part of a dream.

He quickly went into the kitchen and stopped when he saw one of the guys on the floor grabbing his foot, and another standing a few feet away pointing a gun at him.

"I told you I was gonna do it!"

"What the fuck? You actually shot me, you piece of shit!"

"What the fuck's your problem, man?"

"The fuck did he do?"

"Fuck!"

"Hey!" Mickey stepped into the kitchen, yelling. "I have a fucking three year old in the other room trying to sleep!"

The one wielding the gun turned to him, "Hey, I fucking told him I was gonna do it if he didn't shut up about my sister!"

"I didn't say that her being a slut was a  _bad_  thing..." the one on the floor groaned.

Mickey cringed as all hell broke loose and suddenly Iggy and Joey were having to hold back the one with the gun, and the other men in the room were either laughing at the previous comment, or yelling about how that was too far. A fight broke out, and the kitchen was now louder than it had been even when the music had been blasting.

"Fuck," he muttered as he turned away and headed for Sophie's room.

As he reached for the door handle, a lamp shattered against the wall about a foot away from his head. He turned and saw that two of the guys from the kitchen had made their way into the living room and the lamp had been aimed at one of their heads.

Mickey quickly moved into Sophie's room and closed the door behind him.

He panicked when he saw she wasn't in her bed, but then heard the little whimpers, and remembered where he told her to go in times like these.

He knelt down and looked under the bed. "Sophie?"

She was laying on her stomach, her chin resting on the floor, and her hands covering her eyes. She peeked through them at the sound of Mickey's voice. "Daddy?" She was relieved when she saw it was him, "Daddy!"

A loud yell came from the other room, followed by another gun shot.

Sophie whimpered and started crying. "Daddy, I don't like it here!"

Mickey then got up and looked around a little until he found her shoes. He knelt back down, "Sophie, it's gonna be okay," he said, "Come on out, okay? We're gonna go somewhere else."

Sophie was still crying, but managed to crawl out from under the bed.

Mickey helped her put on her shoes, and made her put on a sweater over her pajamas.

Luckily, Mickey was already wearing something decent-sweatpants and a t-shirt-so he was able to quickly get Sophie out of the house without having to go back for anything. His own shoes had been sitting close to the door, so he had been able to grab those.

He walked a little ways down the street, carrying Sophie, before she asked, "Are we going to Aunt Mandy's?"

"Yeah, we are." Not that he had his key on him, or even his phone to be able to call beforehand, but this hadn't been the first time Mickey had had to leave the house in the middle of the night with Sophie. Mandy would be used to it.

When he got there, he banged on the door until a very pissed Mandy opened it, "What the fuck?"

Then she saw Mickey standing there, with a still crying Sophie, and opened the door wider so he could come in.

Mickey didn't say anything to Mandy as he walked past her and into her living room. He set Sophie on the couch, so she was lying down, and took off her shoes. He grabbed the blanket draped over the couch and covered her with it.

He wiped the tears from her cheeks, "Everything's okay now, see? We're at Aunt Mandy's."

Sophie nodded, "Okay."

"Now go back to sleep." He kissed her forehead, and left the living room.

In the kitchen, Mandy had started brewing a pot of coffee. "I doubt I'll be able to go back to sleep at this point," she said.

Mickey looked at the clock on the wall, and saw that it was almost four in the morning. "Sorry." He muttered.

"What was it this time?" she asked, "Dad going on another rampage about something?"

"I don't even know where the fuck dad is right now," Mickey answered, "At least if he were home, he would've scared off all of Iggy and Joey's fucking friends. One of them actually had a gun! And he shot a guy! In my fucking house where my three year old is trying to sleep!"

Mandy raised her eyebrows, "Shit."

"Yeah."

"So what are you gonna do?" She asked after a moment.

He looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"You can't stay there," she said it like it was obvious.

"Shit like this has happened before, Mandy. We'll get over it."

"When was the last time someone outside the family fired a gun in the house?" She said, "What if next time Sophie gets in the way? What if next time they're  _aiming_  for her?"

"No one would even think about it if I were around, okay?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mandy looked at him like he was crazy. "This entire neighborhood is full of sick fucks who wouldn't think twice about gunning down a man or his innocent daughter! Did you forget where we were raised? People aren't just gonna look at her and see the precious angel that you see, Mickey."

"Yeah, I know," Mickey rolled his eyes. The fact that what Mandy was saying was true made him feel sick. "I just...fuck..."

"You need to figure something out."

He cracked his knuckles, trying to decide something. Finally he said quietly, "Ian thinks the same thing."

Mandy looked up, and waited for him to continue.

"He-uh," Mickey ran a hand through his hair. He felt weird, since he never really talked about Ian to Mandy, other than casually mentioning to her that he was going to  _see_  him (and she would need to watch Sophie), and when Mandy would tease him about it. "He thinks I should-uh... move with him. Somewhere else. With Sophie. So it'd be... the three of us."

Mandy stared at him. "And?"

He shrugged, confused, "And what?"

"What the fuck's stopping you?"

He hesitated, trying to think of a valid answer. "You don't think it'd be weird, making her move in with someone who's practically a stranger?"

"Well, you had Ian watch her yesterday-how did that go?"

Mickey rolled his. "Fine-it went..fine."

"So Sophie likes Ian?"

"Yeah, yeah she does."

"And there were a bunch of  _strangers_ -that Sophie probably  _didn't_  like-in the house today, right?"

Mickey didn't say anything.

"Not to mention the fact that you trust Ian-more than anyone you actually live with! It's like your knight in shining armor has finally come to save you and your daughter, but you're thinking about saying, 'no thanks, I'd rather stay here with the dragon and the evil queen.'"

"Come on," he snapped, annoyed, "What-what is that? Fucking 'knight in shining armor' shit..."

"You know what I'm saying. You have to do it, Mickey."

He was quiet for a moment, then finally said, "We'd have to move far enough away, you know, so dad won't come looking for us."

"So what-you'd take away Sophie's chance of growing in this amazing neighborhood? Is that what you're worried about?"

He rolled his eyes again.

"You don't even have a good enough reason to not do this. Please tell me you're not just worried that if you move in with another guy, and you start living-I don't know-a  _gay_  life, then it'll somehow make you less of a 'badass, tattooed knuckles, thug,' because if you care more about that than Sophie, you might as well be  _our_  dad."

"It's not about that-it's just..."

"Just  _what_?"

Mickey sighed. "Fine. Alright."

Mandy raised her eyebrows, "Alright?"

"I'll... do it. I'll... I'll call Gallagher later."

Mandy nodded, "Good. No more of these 4 AM visits."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its been forever since updating!

When Mickey called Ian, telling him what he decided, Ian admitted that he'd already found an apartment they could move into, where the old woman who was living there died, so it was partially furnished. He also said he found a factory that was looking for workers, and he would probably be able to get both of them interviews there within the next week.

"A week?" Mickey asked, "You think we could get there in a week?"

“Well, yeah, Mick. All I’d need to do is buy the car.”

“Jesus,” Mickey muttered. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was scared, and the fact that this could all happen in only a week didn’t help.

Although, he realized it was probably for the best. Now that he had officially made the plans to leave, there was only so much he could do to prevent Terry from finding out before they were actually gone. And if Svetlana ever found out, she would want all the money he had in exchange for keeping her mouth shut.

Ian did most of the planning. There wasn’t much Mickey would be able to do without risking a member of his household finding out. There was no way he’d even be able to pack beforehand, so he could only make a mental list of everything he’d need. He was mostly just worried about remembering everything Sophie needed.

Ian made sure that no one in his family found out about the car he bought, and parked it near the abandoned buildings where he and Mickey used to meet up. He was able to park it in a place where he was sure no one would try to steal it. The car he bought was an old, dark green Volvo Cross Country, with chipped paint, so it already looked like a piece of junk. Then he parked it in a patch of tall grass, so it just looked like an old broken down car.

He knew he was going to have to tell his family that he was leaving sometime. He knew they were still pissed at him for leaving without a word the first time, and he knew that he would be leaving again was horrible, but Mickey needed him more. Plus this time, he was planning on giving proper goodbyes, and even leaving a large chunk of the money he saved up with them.

He decided to tell Lip, before anyone else.

Luckily he was able to catch Lip, by himself, in their room. He checked to make sure Carl, Debbie, or Liam weren’t near the hall, and closed the bedroom door.

“Gotta tell you something,” Ian said.

Lip looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

“I’m leaving,” he said right away.

“What? Again?” He looked confused.

“Uh, yeah.”

They were silent for a long moment, just staring at each other.

Lip spoke first, “Well Fiona’s gonna be pissed.”

“I’m gonna leave some of the money I saved up while I was gone.”

Lip nodded a bit. His face was unreadable, as he looked away from Ian.

“I’m leaving with Mickey.”

“Figured.”

After a moment, he said, “What about his kid?”

“Sophie’s coming with us.”

“And her mom?”

Ian laughed bitterly, “She won’t give a shit. She hates being a mom.”

“How do you know?”

Ian shrugged, “Mickey told me.”

“So how do you know he’s not lying?”

He raised his eyebrows at Lip. “Why would he lie about that?”

“So you wouldn’t feel bad about kidnapping her daughter,” he offered.

“He wouldn’t do that-he wouldn’t risk doing something that could get Sophie taken away. Svetlana wouldn’t care enough to actually do anything about it.”

“So that’s it, then?” Lip asked, “You’re just going to run away from your family again? This time with your-what?-is he even your boyfriend? Or is he still just some guy you’re screwing?”

“Fuck you!” Ian nearly yelled, “Mickey needs me, okay? More than anyone here does. He’s never going to leave that house if I don’t help him.”

Lip sighed, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. “And what about Fi, huh? Debbie, Carl, Liam?”

“What am I supposed to do-live here for the rest of my life?”

“Yeah- it’d be different if you didn’t just come back after leaving three fucking years ago, Ian!”

“I’ll leave some money, I’ll stay in contact, I’ll even _send_ some money when I can! I wasn’t just going to up and leave again…”

“Whatever,” Lip finally sighed, “You’re gonna have to explain that to Fi.”

“I was going to.”

Lip just nodded.

“You know-how come it’s not a big deal when _you_ go and live _your_ own life, but when I do it I’m letting the family down or something?”

Lip smirked, “Because what I’m doing benefits the whole family.”

Ian shook his head, “I can’t stay _here_ forever.”

“Well… we were able to survive without you for three years already, so…”

Ian sighed and sat down. He figured there wasn’t much else he could say to Lip, and the fact that he wasn’t still yelling at him meant breaking the news had gone better than he thought.

~

The official plan was to leave in the middle of the night on Friday. Ian would park the car a few blocks away, so there would be no chance of him running into Terry, or anyone who knew Terry.

Mickey had asked Mandy to help that night, if only to help him get a three year old and a few suitcases down the street in the middle of the night, in a neighborhood like theirs. He realized that he might have also just wanted her there for some kind of support.

Mandy actually seemed more excited than he was, and probably was. Mickey wouldn’t let himself get excited, not when he had to remember everything that could go wrong at any second. He probably wouldn’t let himself get excited until they were on the road, maybe not even until they were in the apartment.

On Wednesday, Ian had decided that he wouldn’t put off telling the rest of his family any longer. He waited until they were all at the dinner table together. He was lucky that Lip wasn’t there, because he wasn’t sure that Lip would’ve been on his side.

He decided to just blurt it out when the table was already full of chatter.

“I’m moving,” he said, despite the fact that literally everyone at the table was talking.

Debbie stopped talking almost immediately and turned to him. It caused a domino effect as everyone at the table slowly became quiet and turned to Ian.

Carl looked confused, as he looked from Fi, to Deb, and then to Ian. “What?”

The look on Fiona’s face made Ian’s stomach hurt. She didn’t even look angry, just hurt and confused.

“What do you mean?” She finally asked.

“I’m moving out…” Ian answered slowly, “And I’m moving somewhere that’s… pretty far away…”

“But you just got _back_!” Debbie nearly yelled.

“I know, but… it’s not like I was going to live here forever.”

They just stared at him.

“And,” he continued, “I figured I should actually tell you all this time. Say goodbye, you know?”

“And _when_ are you leaving?” Fiona asked.

“Uh, well, Friday-“

“ _Friday_?” Her eyes were wide, “ _This_ Friday?”

“Yeah-“

“What the hell?” Carl interrupted.

“You just got _back_!” Debbie repeated.

Everyone stared at him. Even Liam, who didn’t seem to fully understand what was going on.

“I’m sorry,” Ian finally said lamely, with a shrug, “It’s something I have to do.”

“ _Why_?” Carl yelled.

Ian just looked at all of them, not knowing how to explain.

“This is bullshit!” Carl yelled and stormed upstairs.

Debbie didn’t say anything, but gave Ian a disappointed look before following.

Fiona looked at Ian. She had that look that she saved for times when she was especially concerned about something.

They just looked at each other for a long moment, before Fiona finally sighed and said, “I can’t try to make you stay.”

“I don’t mean to be… pulling a Monica.” Ian said quietly.

She shrugged, and gave him a sad smile. “You’re not. You didn’t have this family then abandon it. You needed to go and live your own life sometime.”

“Thanks, Fi.”

“You told Lip already?”

Ian nodded. “He’s pissed at me. He said you’d be pissed too.”

Fiona shrugged. “I probably will be after you leave…” She then glanced at the stairs, “I don’t know what to say to them, though.”

“I don’t blame them,” Ian admitted, “I’d be mad too.”

“They’ll understand… maybe.”

~

Carl didn’t speak to Ian for the rest of the night, and all through Thursday. When Debbie spoke to him, it was cold and short.

He spent the day in his room, packing, and the rest of the family just avoided him, except for Fiona, who brought him up a basket with some of the clean clothes he needed to pack, and a look of pity.

Later on in the day, he decided to call Mickey.

“Yeah?” He answered.

“So I told my family I’m leaving.” Ian said right away.

“Yeah? What’d you tell ‘em?”

“I didn’t tell them about you.” He said, knowing that’s what Mickey was really wondering.

“Good… So how’d they take it?”

“Well, they all hate me now.” Ian sighed.

There was a long moment of silence.

“You know you don’t have to do this…” Mickey finally said quietly.

Ian rolled his eyes, and wished Mickey could see him do that. “I know. I’m not doing this because I have to, though…”

Mickey paused before saying, “Yeah well if there’s any chance of you backing out, you better fucking tell me now and not three days after we leave or something.”

Ian actually smiled at this. Mickey always seemed to expect, and accept, the worst outcome for things. But Ian just _knew_ this would work out in the end. He figured that with Mickey expecting the worse now, it would be a nice little surprise for him when things worked out.

“If I was gonna back out I would’ve done it by now.” Ian assured him, “Stop worrying about it. Everything’s going to work out.”

“Yeah, sure, Gallagher.” He responded sarcastically.

“Come on,” Ian said, “you _know_ everything’s going to work out. I mean you have to think it will at least a little or else you wouldn’t even be doing this.”

“Whatever.”

There was another long silence before Ian finally said, “So I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, see ya.” Mickey then hung up.

The rest of Ian’s night was a quiet one. Carl said nothing to him when he finally came in to go to bed.

~

Mickey had become very jittery since Ian’s phone call. It didn’t reassure him in the slightest. All he could think about was something going wrong, and him fucking up Sophie’s chances of being raised anywhere but here. He couldn’t care less about what would happen to himself.

His jitteriness lasted all through Friday. His last day had been on Thursday, and he had arranged for his last paycheck to be sent to Mandy, so he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone in his house taking it.

He spent that morning packing things like pull-ups, and Sophie’s shampoo, and hid it under Sophie’s bed. He was afraid to start packing anything that would be too noticeable.

Sophie woke up while Mickey was in her room.

“Mornin’, kid,” He said, when he noticed her sitting up. He sat down on the bed and brushed Sophie’s hair out of her face.

“Why are you in here?” She asked with a yawn.

“Mind your business why,” he leaned in and kissed the top of her head, “You want some breakfast?”

“Can I have eggs?”

“Yeah, sure.” Mickey picked her up and lifted her over his shoulder, as she squealed with laughter.

Luckily Terry was passed out in his room for the first half of the day, so they were able to spend it just watching TV.

Eventually, he figured he should bring Sophie over to Mandy’s, since they’d be leaving that night, and they’d both be upset if they didn’t get to spend much time with each other before that. Also, Terry had finally woken up and started yelling about Sophie’s cartoons, before just changing the channel.

Mickey had to bring Sophie into her room before she started crying again. Fortunately, she calmed down when he told her they were going to Mandy’s, and he was able to get her dressed.

When they got there, Mandy immediately pulled Sophie into her arms, and basically ignored Mickey. He couldn’t blame her, though.

Dan was at work, so it was just the three of them. Sophie was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, and Mandy and Mickey talked quietly on the couch. They made sure Sophie was only focused on the TV, and not listening to what they were saying. Luckily she was also distracted by the toys she brought with her.

“So have you actually packed yet?” Mandy asked him.

“Just some pull-ups and shit…”

“That’s it?”

“There wasn’t much I could do without anyone noticing.”

“Okay, but what happens when you’re packing tonight and you forget something important?”

“I’m not gonna forget anything,” he said, rolling his eyes, “and if I do, you can just mail it to me.”

“Well after you and Sophie leave, I’m not going to have any reason to go back inside that house ever again, so, yeah, don’t forget anything.”

“All I need is my clothes, her clothes, and the stuff I already said I packed.”

“Um,” Mandy raised an eyebrow, “What about money? And blankets and pillows? And her birth certificate? And her toys? Plus you might as well bring the laptop since I doubt anyone in that house uses it for anything other than porn. And what about little things like alarm clocks and lamps and… plates?”

“Obviously I was gonna remember the money and her birth certificate and shit. But… she’s just gonna have to choose whichever toys she can fit in her bag. And yeah, I forgot about the blankets, but that’s the whole reason you’re helping me, right?”

“And the other stuff?”

Mickey shrugged, “The woman, who lived there before, died, so it has some furniture and shit. It probably has _lamps_.”

Mandy smirked, “That’s good… but you better hope they found her before she started rotting, or else the place probably still smells.”

“Fuck you,” He rolled his eyes, as she just laughed.

“By the way,” Mandy said after a minute, “I sort of bought something for Sophie…”

Mickey looked annoyed, “She doesn’t need anything.”

“I know, but I’m kind of worried about her, you know?” She said, grinning, “Having only you two around to help her pick out her clothes… I thought it’d be a good going away present too…”

She then got up, went into the bedroom, and came out with a shopping bag, handing it to Mickey.

He rifled through it, rolling his eyes, but still smiling. The bag was full of a few pink and yellow shirts, dresses, and pants. He looked back up at Mandy, sighed, and said, “Thanks…”

“Well… I know how much you hate being seen buying three year old girl clothes.”

Mickey rolled his eyes, and looked over at his daughter. She was happily playing with one of her dolls, completely unaware of anything either of them were talking about.

~

Ian sat up on his bed, mostly just staring at the time on his phone.

It was only 11:30 and he knew he should’ve been spending his last few hours before he left, downstairs with the rest of his family, watching TV, but he was too anxious, he was worried someone might notice.

Carl still hadn’t said a word to him since he made his announcement. He’d tried to get him to speak a few times, but he was stubborn.

Eventually Carl came upstairs, climbed up to his bed and turned out the light, without a word.

They both sat there in the dark for a few minutes before Carl finally spoke to him. “I thought you were leaving today?”

“Not until like 1:30,” Ian answered.

“ _Why_?”

“It’s a long story…”

“Are you at least coming back for Christmas?” Carl snapped, “We haven’t had a Christmas that wasn’t completely depressing since you left!”

Ian hesitated, “I don’t know.”

Carl was quiet for a long time. He rolled over so he was facing away from Ian. He didn’t speak again until he heard Ian get up.

He looked over and saw Ian dragging a suitcase out from under his bed. He watched him pack a few things. “At least you told us this time. Instead of just leaving…”

Ian looked up at him. “If I’d told anyone then, they would’ve stopped me.”

“Whatever,” Carl said, “enjoy your new life.”

Ian sighed and turned to Carl. “I’ll come back and visit, okay? I don’t know when, but I will.” He grabbed his suitcase and headed for the door. “See ya, Carl.”

He was at the top of the stairs when he heard Carl say, “See ya,” back.

~

Mickey sat at the end of his bed, staring at the wall, smoking a cigarette. Svetlana wasn’t home, but everyone else was. They were all asleep, fortunately, including Terry, who was passed out on the couch.

He stood up and began packing a bag. He was able to pack most of the clothes he owned-which wasn’t very many-a blanket and pillow, and the pile of Money he’s been hiding in a hole in the wall since he was about 18. He didn’t save it all, but there was good amount there from his drug deals, his paychecks from the Kash N Grab, and whatever was left of the paychecks, from his most recent job, that didn’t go into paying for bills, food, and stuff for Sophie.

Selling drugs especially helped. He had a little over 50 thousand dollars saved. If anyone in his house had found out he was hording that it’d be gone in a second.

He checked his phone a few more times, until he finally got a text from Mandy saying she was on her way to the house.

Mickey figured he should leave some money for Svetlana and a note. He didn’t know how Terry would react, except that it’d be bad and he’d probably target Svetlana first. It was only fair that she got a head start.

He moved quietly from his room to Sophie’s with a second suitcase, trying to ignore Terry snoring on the couch.

He bit his lip when he saw Sophie sound asleep in her bed. He quickly packed all her clothes in the second suitcase. He then set the suitcases aside and sat down on her bed.

Mickey gently nudged her back. “Sophie,” he whispered, “Hey, wake up.”

Sophie rolled over and rubbed her eyes. “Daddy?”

“Hey, come on, get up,” he said quietly, as he pulled the blanket off of her. He folded the blanket up and shoved it in the suitcase with her clothes. He then picked her up and set her on his lap.

She yawned and rubbed her eyes sleeping, looking confused.

He held her close for moment and said softly, “We’re going on a trip, okay?”

Sophie looked up at him, “We are?”

“Yeah, but we gotta hurry up,” he set her down on the floor and held out her back pack, “here, pack all the toys you wanna bring.”

Sophie began going around the room, picking up her favorite toys and bringing them back to Mickey. It was mostly McDonald’s toys, with a few stuffed animals and dolls. “I wanna bring all of them,” she whined.

“We don’t have room, okay? I’ll buy you new toys later.” Mickey said impatiently, “Come on, we need to hurry up. Just one more.”

As Sophie brought over another toy, Mickey zipped up her bag. He grabbed her sweater and shoes, and helped her put those on, along with her back pack.

He opened the door, and picked up the bags on the floor, ushering Sophie to go ahead of him.

She stopped when they got into the living room, looking over at Terry.

“Come on,” Mickey whispered, trying to lead her to the front door.

Suddenly, there was noise coming from the kitchen, and Mickey froze.

Iggy walked into the living room and stopped when he saw the two of them standing there with packed bags. He paused.

“You leaving?” he finally asked, walking up to them.

“Yeah,” Mickey answered hesitantly.

“For good?”

Mickey nodded, looking down at Sophie. She was gazing up at Iggy like she couldn’t decide if she should greet her uncle or not.

Iggy glanced over at their dad, then nodded a bit, like he understood. “Probably for the best.”

Mickey didn’t say anything, as Iggy moved forward and kneeled down in front of Sophie. “Can I have a hug before you go, kid?”

She moved forward and wrapped her arms around Iggy’s neck. “I love you, uncle Iggy.”

Iggy hugged her back. “Yeah, love ya too.” He then stood back up and looked from Mickey to Terry and back. “You know I’m not gonna tell him anything.”

Mickey nodded, “Thanks.”

“Yep,” Iggy turned and walked back into the kitchen.

Mickey took one last look at his father before he finally left the house for the last time.


End file.
